Microsoft has now released physical copies of Windows 11, a little more than six months after the release of the OS. Twitter user Luke Blevins spotted the retail copies of Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro on Best Buy’s website yesterday (via OnMSFT), and the $140 and $200 prices match those for the digital licenses available to purchase on the Microsoft Store.
Inside the retail boxes, customers will find a USB Flash Drive with installation media and an activation key for either Windows 11 Home or Pro. Of course, if you already have a valid Windows 10 license on your PC, you can upgrade to Windows 11 for free. You can also create your own installation media on your own by downloading the official ISOs from Microsoft’s website.
However, these Windows 11 USB Flash drives are for people who need a valid Windows 11 license and an easy way to install the OS without going through Windows Update or the other manual ways to install the OS using the Internet. It’s probably a small audience, but Microsoft has been selling physical copies of Windows for years and there’s no reason to make an exception for Windows 11.
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If you’re interested in purchasing a physical copy of Windows 11, you need to make sure that your PC actually supports it. The minimum system requirements remain one of the most controversial aspects of the OS, with Microsoft having left many recent PCs on the sidelines. While it’s still possible to install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs, Microsoft doesn’t guarantee that these devices will continue to receive updates in the long run.
Back in January, Microsoft’s Chief Hardware Officer Panos Panay said that the company was seeing “strong demand and preference for Windows 11 with people accepting the upgrade offer to Windows 11 at twice the rate we saw for Windows 10.” The exec also claimed that Windows 11 had “the highest quality scores and product satisfaction of any version of Windows we’ve ever shipped.” However, Windows 11 adoption seems to have stalled in AdDuplex’s latest surveys.
dftf
<p>I’d suspect the reason for these is the same as the recent-years minor resurgence in vinyl-records: nostalgia. They think <em>Windows 11</em> will seem more-special if you can own a physical version of it.</p><p><br></p><p>But it’s still pointless, overall: not-only as you mention, that the image on there will be out-of-date once installed, but also that any PC with <em>Windows 10</em> right now that is eligible can install <em>11</em> for-free. Any PC which is not capable of running <em>11</em> still won’t be able to if you purchase this, and for such people they will have to purchase a new PC, which will most-likely come with <em>Windows 11 </em>preinstalled on it.</p><p><br></p><p>The only audience I could possibly see for this is "I have a PC that is of-spec right now, but I purchased it without <em>Windows</em> preinstalled ("no OS" or a <em>Linux</em> preinstall), so I have no upgrade-path" or "for some-reason, I really want a retail-version so I can deactivate <em>11</em> on my current PC and transfer the licence to a new device in future". The latter point <em>might</em> be useful for VMs, perhaps… but it would still be cheaper just to buy a digital-licence than a retail boxed-copy.</p>
dftf
<p>I’d imagine many people who build their own PCs likely have a spare or unused <em>Windows 10 </em>licence they could use, then upgrade that install for-free to <em>Windows 11</em>. Or an old <em>8.x </em>or <em>7 </em>licence they could upgrade to <em>10</em>, and from that to <em>11</em>.</p>
dftf
<p>Unless you’re <em>really</em> into <em>Windows</em> to collector-level, I struggle to see the need for this.</p><p><br></p><p>Internet-speeds are ever-increasing, and it’s easy to download an ISO image, or create a bootable USB storage-device, of <em>Windows 11</em> to install from — it’s not like in the old-days when <em>Microsoft </em>wouldn’t make ISOs available publicly (outside of enterprises or MSDN subscribers)! Or for any eligible PC currently running <em>Windows 10</em> to just do an "over-the-top" upgrade — which would also be free to do, of course!</p>